Seriously this study session is awful. First of all its boring, its way too detailed, tough to relate to any real world experience and long. I thought derivatives was bad but atleast thats pretty straight forward and useful. This study session defies anything I’ve used before in portfolio management. I think its only pertainable if you’re a performance analyst. Theres no doubt some decent stuff in here about performance attribution but the long drawn out process steps and pros and cons to certain benchmark construction is terrible. I thought it would be one of the really easy simple quick reads but its probably one of the hardest ones so far with regards to all the useless stuff that you can’t usually figure out intuitively. Alright I’m done venting the frusteration. Anyone else find SS16 as the worst?
was just thinking the same thing.
I’ve now read all of the CFAI readings and totally agree that this is the worst SS of them all. The CFAI problems for thiss SS are also more difficult that what they first look. This is one SS that I’m going to have to spend some more time reviewing.
I think this would be useful if you are a plan sponsor that has assets managed by an external IM which is quite common these days . But yeah I agree this SS is painful …
don´t know about you, but the problem I find with this one is that I can only do the questions using excel… I have serious doubts I can calculate each contribution with paper + calculator without spending a lot of time during the examination… not sure, but don´t remember if the LOS does not require calculations…
anyone who wrote the exam who would like to clarify the depth of calculations needed ont he exam? would derivs be in essay format or multiple choice?
SS16 was on last year’s AM section (Q8 and 9), so download from CFAI website. In retrospect, calculation looks simple, but it did not look that way at the time…
OK, I’m sorry I got to revive this thread again and depress everyone, but this SS really really is awful! I just finished reviewing it again for the 3 rd time. I can make myself memorize all these calculations, but do I really want to spend all the time for this objective. I know what many will say. “Don’t worry so much about the calculations and focus on the concepts”. To tell you the truth I don’t even feel like doing that either. Especially given how notorious CFAI is on not even asking a single question on 5 lbs. of material. Can anyone get me over the hump. Maybe a strategy that can break these MF in a few short, clear sentences that I can take into the exam with me. Perhaps refer a past question that is one of those all I really need to know types. I did a search and found another SS16 thread that explained these calculations. No thanks, not interested in that either. INo offence, bu it was worse than reading CFAI.
Totally agree - worst SS by far. Reading 43 was mind-numbingly dull, while 44 has a lot of formulas that will take time to memorize.
I’m looking at the big picture and considering there were a couple questions on this topic on last year’s exam I think its less likely to show up this year as well. I could be wrong but I think smart test taking strategies are all about playing odds and I’m thinking odds are it won’t be. I think we should stick with some other calculations that may take some time to memorize instead. There is a lot of detail in this SS and if I memorize them I may still miss it on the exam so its one of those things I think you roll the dice and if its on there then you just tough through it and pick up a few points here and there.